Although the secretary of state has downplayed any talk of a presidential bid, husband Bill Clinton has been laying the foundation for her possible candidacy, crisscrossing the country on behalf of Obama and congressional Democrats who will be free-agent superdelegates at the 2016 convention.

In California alone, the former president campaigned for a half-dozen House Democratic candidates. He also answered a call from big labor to stump for Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 tax initiative and against the labor-neutering Proposition 32.

As former Clinton spin-meister Chris Lehanenotes, getting key California constituency groups on board - organized labor, environmentalists, women and Latinos - will be crucial to any Democrat running for president.

Building an early money base is also critical, and California - which generated more campaign cash than any other state this election - is once again certain to play a major role in that department in 2016.

If Hillary Clinton decides not to run, Lehane gives the early edge to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is sitting on a $20 million war chest.

But you can bet everyone from Vice President Joe Bidento Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malleyis already booking flights to the Golden State.

"Take a deep breath," Lehane said, "because we live in the era of the perpetual campaign."

Pelosi power: While most eyes have been on the presidency, Nancy Pelosi has been racing coast to coast on a campaign of her own - this one to keep her Democratic leadership position in the House.

In the past month alone, Pelosi hosted 65 fundraisers and campaign events for Democratic congressional contenders around the country.

The final sprint put her election cycle total at 692 fundraising and campaign events - as many as five a day - for a haul of $85.1 million.

The bottom line is that no matter the final Democratic count in the House, Pelosi will have a lot of IOUs. What's more, at this point, no one is even stepping up to challenge her for minority leader.

"It would be hard to justify replacing her," given how many winning candidates are going to be in her debt, said former state party Chairman Art Torres.

Campaign riches: California's election will probably go down in history as the billionaires ballot - thanks to the dozen mega-wealthy men and women who pumped more than $140 million into various measures, many of which they crafted themselves.

The elite collection of trust-fund babies and businesspeople who donated more than $1 million apiece this election cycle together outspent organized labor on ballot initiatives by more than $50 million and corporations by more than $100 million, according to the nonpartisan money-tracking outfit MapLight.org.

"What we are seeing is the 1 percent of the 1 percent" setting the political agenda, said MapLight President Don Newman. "It underscores how the initiative process has changed from a century ago, when it was set up to give citizen interest groups a process to break the grip of wealthy interests controlling government."

Ironic, isn't it?

School colors: Insiders will spend a lot of time after this election looking at whether concern for education funding is still the campaign game-changer of yore.

Pollster Mark DiCamillo of the nonpartisan Field Institute noted that surveys on the tax-increasing Proposition 30 - which Gov. Jerry Brown pitched as a way to save school funding - showed virtually no difference in support between adults with school-age children and those without.